Quilting is becoming an increasingly important and integral part of my life. My creative outlet changes how I view the world around me, influences the activities I pursue with my family, and introduces me to new people whose life paths wouldn't ordinarily intersect mine. My life is much like my favorite types of quilts - scrappy and unconventional, full of interest and surprises, and with an underlying current of making do (and making something beautiful!) with what I have.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

I'm 24 HST away from being done piecing my Pick and Choose quilt. The HST are pieced, they just need to be joined to each other and then sewn on as the 4th and final border. I'm thinking of calling this quilt "The Kitchen Sink" because it is thrown in there, along with a little bit of everything else.

You're probably sick of seeing this quilt, but I can't seem to get enough of it. I love, love, love it! Thanks again, Nancy, for first bringing it to my attention back in May. The last border will definitely make it on tomorrow night, as there is a quilt guild meeting on Saturday morning, and I am so motivated by deadlines. It is not often that I have something for Show and Tell, so I'm not going to miss this opportunity to share.

My Leader/Ender project lately has been my GGG quilt. I have 9 completed blocks, and a number of partially completed blocks. Tonight, I laid the first 9 out on some dark blue carpet to start visualizing what I can do as far as layout. I feel fairly certain that I want blue to be the color of the new fabric that I incorporate into this quilt in order to stabilize all these old, threadbare fabrics. Perhaps an on-point setting,

or simple sashing in between blocks,

or maybe something else less traditional. Any ideas, anyone?

Finally, thank you to all of you who encouraged me to look at the bus incident in a different light. I'm feeling much better. I have, however, shared my concerns with the principal and have set up a meeting to talk with her in person next week about this issue and some other concerns I have (namely, the fact that my child was not given the option to watch the President's motivational and apolitical speech to schoolchildren nationwide earlier this week. What message are we sending to our children about respecting authority if we disregard his message to us just because we don't agree with his political stances? I was a self-absorbed college student in 1991, so I don't know the whole story, but I do know that George H. W. Bush gave a similar -albeit less eloquent - speech to schoolchildren nationwide, and that Republicans defended the President's right to address students. What has changed now so that it is NOT OK for Obama to do the same? How are we to encourage an informed citizenry that engages with its political leaders - which is how democracy works, by the way - if we shield them from those same leaders? How was this not a teachable moment, regardless of your political leanings? Isn't the best and most meaningful education one that is opportunistic and interactive, not just rote memorization? And how can anyone object to the President's message in that address, in brief that each and every student is in part responsible for his/her own education, that they should work hard, and that they should stay in school? And who really thought that this would be a ploy to brainwash and indoctrinate our children? Are we truly that cynical? I know there are many that disagree with me.)

Anyway, I didn't get on here to get on a soapbox. I should go to bed, as my office is going on a kayaking trip down the James River tomorrow as a team building experience prior to the start of our recruitment travel season. I want to be alert and rested so I can be safe and make the most of what is sure to be a fun day.